Journey Home is the companion blog to the novel "Journey Home" by Paul Burke. After twenty six years the novel was finally published and has enjoyed great reviews. The Journey Home Blog is a place to sound off about current events, music and movie reviews. Read, write, explore and create. Enjoy your world, your time and your life - Paul

Thursday, December 11, 2008

From out by the Pacific coast comes Ascension by Phoenix Rising a calm, ethereal album of meditative music that combines piano and flute along with several other instruments including cello, tabla, hang drum, guitar, goat hooves (shakers from Bolivia), voice and something called a guzheng a Chinese dulcimer of sorts.

Ascension creates an ambient, relaxing, peaceful listening experience. Think of Sunday morning with a fresh brew of coffee and the morning paper or good book. With song titles like seed, creation, nourishment, heartstrings, unspoken, insight and ascension you get the idea that we are reaching here for another place in time and space. It is always nice when performers reach for something beyond self and deliver to the audience something that lifts them out of their immediate concerns.

Ascension has a real sense of poetry and melancholy. Listening to this CD on a quiet, rainy day like this morning has enhanced that feeling. It's soft pace reminded me of the quieter offerings from the band "Ancient Future". The Cello is a nice touch and overall this is a calm, thoughtful, meditative, and harmonious listening experience. There are definitely Native American influences throughout and I look forward to adding Ascension to my music collection.

Relax, enjoy and support independent music. You can visit their web sites by clicking on the link above or the ones below. Congratulations on a fine effort.

Journey Home Reviews

Paul Burke is some fantastic, talented writer. Journey Home is an eye-opener. It is down to earth and humanly raw! I highly recommend it as must read!! -- Knowledge Tree Bookstore

I randomly stumbled upon this book online and it looked intriguing. Little did I know that it was more than just a curious cover... wonderful -- Johnny

Paul, I got Journey Home sent to my house and eagerly devoured it -- Ken

It is so insightful and powerful and it emanates such wonderment of reality. It is Phenomenal on so many levels tremendous! -- Aimee'

When I first started reading Journey Home I couldn’t put it down! Each person and situation became vivid in my mind. I could feel the book. It became one with me and the sounds ... here on Big River. The unexpected twists and turns, continued to peak my interest, and the first night I read till I could see no more. Then, as I awoke I read till I was done. A book of this quality is an Amazing Gift for all to read and Understand!!!! -- Dusty

"When I first started reading Journey home I couldn't put it down. Each person and situation became vivid in my mind. I could feel the book. It became one with me and the sounds here on Big River. The unexpected twists and turns, continued to peak my interest, and the first night I read till I could see no more. Then, as I awoke I read till I was done. A book of this quality is an Amazing Gift for all to read and Understand!!!!" -- Dusty_______________________________

Danny and his mates are struggling to make ends meet. They've landed a
steady gig but its not paying well. In walks Louise, Adam and Jessica
and all their lives turn upside down. Sam takes a stand, Eric drives
the car and Wendy is off to never land. It bobs and weaves and
sparkles, and jams, and runs, and recognizes the world around them to be
more terrifying than what it seems and more beautiful than they
perceive.______________________________

From the Press Release for Journey Home:

Paul Burke has a long and rich
background in the visual arts, broadcasting, music and theater.He has been creating in one medium or another for over thirty
years.He spent ten of
those years as a leading contributor to a public radio station
he helped to start, guide and define.His show was dedicated to non-commercial artists and
environmental causes.

Journey
Home
is a result of the thirty plus years Paul Burke has spent creating in the world
of audio and visual arts, performing, touring, and championing environmental advocacy.

Journey Home - is all reader to reader - thanks for helping to spread the word.